Visual Displays of the Sustainable Development Goals …
237
5.2 Case Study 2: Ocean Plastic and Working Towards SDG
14 Life Below Water
Building on the learning of the Green Week visual display, students were involved in
every part of the process for the next visual display, including developing the concepts
for the ocean plastic visual display as well as creating it. To get students involved
the Green Academy advertised two ocean plastic visual display workshops via NTU
event pages, NTU social media, and through the support of academics sharing the
advert with their students. Incentives were used to encourage student engagement
with a competition for the best idea for the visual display, including £150 budget for
the winning project and a £50 reward voucher once the project was complete.
The two workshops were fully subscribed with ten students in each, they took
place over two consecutive days, at different times, to support student attendance.
The purpose of the workshops was to give students a clear background and understanding to develop a visual display idea, that then students can submit three days
after the workshops. A short 10-min presentation introduced students to the outline
of the workshop, the SDGs, and the issue of ocean plastic. The first activity was an
icebreaker where students were put into three groups and were asked to share with
each other their names, what course they were on and why they came to the workshop
along with choosing a silly team name, helping them relax and realise why they were
taking part. To come up with solutions, students were first asked to understand the
problem in more detail and were shown the ISM Model (see Fig. 1).
Using the ISM model allowed students to see behaviour change outside of the
individual context and understand the problem in detail. Not only could they see the
individual factors that affect people’s choices and behaviours, it also showed them
the factors that exist beyond them in the social realm and the material factors which
shape people’s behaviours. Once introduced to this model, students worked in their
groups to evaluate the problems surrounding ocean plastic which were then shared
and discussed with everyone via a fishbone diagram (see Image 3).
After exploring the problem, the students then reflected on which behaviours they
could focus on for the display. The final activity was showing students successful
campaigns and followed on by a discussion of which ones they liked and why. To
end the session students were then given a project idea development sheet with the
criteria for which they would be scored, firstly they had to include SDG 14 target 1
‘By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular
from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution’ (United
Nations Sustainable Development 2018), raise awareness of plastic pollution, and
think about the logistics of how easily it can be moved around the campuses and be
safe.
All students that attended the workshop handed a completed project proposal
form, which NTU’s Green Academy scored. Two projects ideas stood out from the
rest, the first was the SDG 14 logo made from 446 bottle tops (see Image 4) to show
approximately how many plastic bottles that are thrown away every second in the
237
5.2 Case Study 2: Ocean Plastic and Working Towards SDG
14 Life Below Water
Building on the learning of the Green Week visual display, students were involved in
every part of the process for the next visual display, including developing the concepts
for the ocean plastic visual display as well as creating it. To get students involved
the Green Academy advertised two ocean plastic visual display workshops via NTU
event pages, NTU social media, and through the support of academics sharing the
advert with their students. Incentives were used to encourage student engagement
with a competition for the best idea for the visual display, including £150 budget for
the winning project and a £50 reward voucher once the project was complete.
The two workshops were fully subscribed with ten students in each, they took
place over two consecutive days, at different times, to support student attendance.
The purpose of the workshops was to give students a clear background and understanding to develop a visual display idea, that then students can submit three days
after the workshops. A short 10-min presentation introduced students to the outline
of the workshop, the SDGs, and the issue of ocean plastic. The first activity was an
icebreaker where students were put into three groups and were asked to share with
each other their names, what course they were on and why they came to the workshop
along with choosing a silly team name, helping them relax and realise why they were
taking part. To come up with solutions, students were first asked to understand the
problem in more detail and were shown the ISM Model (see Fig. 1).
Using the ISM model allowed students to see behaviour change outside of the
individual context and understand the problem in detail. Not only could they see the
individual factors that affect people’s choices and behaviours, it also showed them
the factors that exist beyond them in the social realm and the material factors which
shape people’s behaviours. Once introduced to this model, students worked in their
groups to evaluate the problems surrounding ocean plastic which were then shared
and discussed with everyone via a fishbone diagram (see Image 3).
After exploring the problem, the students then reflected on which behaviours they
could focus on for the display. The final activity was showing students successful
campaigns and followed on by a discussion of which ones they liked and why. To
end the session students were then given a project idea development sheet with the
criteria for which they would be scored, firstly they had to include SDG 14 target 1
‘By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular
from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution’ (United
Nations Sustainable Development 2018), raise awareness of plastic pollution, and
think about the logistics of how easily it can be moved around the campuses and be
safe.
All students that attended the workshop handed a completed project proposal
form, which NTU’s Green Academy scored. Two projects ideas stood out from the
rest, the first was the SDG 14 logo made from 446 bottle tops (see Image 4) to show
approximately how many plastic bottles that are thrown away every second in the